[header_box_1 title=”the yeah write 2012 summer writer’s series, part 7″] Week Seven: fly, fly fly on your own, no flying monkeys
Please welcome guest editor Jane D who tweets as @greatersafety and blogs at A Place of Greater Safety. If you have any questions or need any clarification on today’s voting process, please feel free to begin a discussion in comments.
Your judges this week for the final summer writer’s series jury prize are Michelle L at The Journey, Cindy R at The Reedster Speaks and Liz R at Studio Liz. Regular judge and contributing editor Kristin W is competing on the challenge grid this week, no pressure.
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Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, because when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out in the open and has other people looking at it.
– A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
What the what? There’s voting??
After struggling for days with my post for the fourth week of the summer series, I finally clicked “submit” late on that Wednesday, relieved.
Then I saw it: “voting will open at 9pm.”
For a moment, I cursed Erica M and her sneaky ways, but it was too late to get out of it. My hangout grid loving self would have to learn to vote.
I forced myself to read, for the first time, every blog on the challenge grid. Compared to the times I’d tried before, with sixty plus blogs, less than thirty was survivable. I chose my favorites, grudgingly, then did it again the next week.
To my surprise, I found myself becoming a better reader. I kept being forced to admit to myself – you know what, this is cute, but I wouldn’t vote for this. For the first time, I was really asking what I wanted out of these blog posts. It turns out I like smooth flow, intentional structure, self-awareness, and real heart. Despite the fact that I enjoyed reading almost all of the blogs, only a few had that combination. Sometimes it’s hard for me to pin down exactly why one post works for me, and another doesn’t. I’m working hard on figuring it out, so I can learn to write it myself.
Now I see the worth of voting to the reader, not just the writer being judged.
When it comes down to it, even though we’re each our own unique little flower, and this is a tremendously loving community, not all our work is equal. We don’t even equal ourselves from week to week. To pretend otherwise diminishes the efforts of those who are working hard, and takes away any incentive for those who might be on the fence, waiting to take the leap into something challenging.
As someone who took the leap, and has benefited tremendously from it, I am tremendously grateful. I got a chance to experience unexpected acclaim, as well as how it felt to only get two votes for a piece incredibly close to my heart. I learned crucial lessons from both.
As you go today into voting, know it’s okay to just pick those that speak to you. Vote for what you like, then ask yourself why. Then ask how you’ll apply that to your own writing. You won’t regret it.
Oh, hey, would it help if you could download a spreadsheet for scoring each entry based on the yeah write submission guidelines? Asking for Erica M
The Reedster, one of our guest judges, has graciously shared her personal spreadsheet for how she scores each submission for voting when she’s competing in the challenge every week. Even on the pieces you’re loving on subjectively, measuring them against expected criteria will help you become a more critical reader. Download the spreadsheet here and your top three calculated votes will surprise you.
Yeah write summer writer’s series #70 is open for voting.
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- Everybody gets three votes.
- Unless there is a program glitch on our end or willful treks to various Starbucks for new IP addresses on your end, voting for your own post should be disabled. If a yeah write editor added your post for you, the app won’t recognize your IP address as the owner of the entry, so please be on the honor system about it.
- You are free to campaign for your favorite entries on Twitter, Facebook, your blog and any other social media, but please please encourage your visitors to read through a few submissions first. They may find something they like about us and stick around awhile.
- Yeah write voting day is not Internet clicking contest day—no flashing your submission number to the camera or scrawling it on your boobs/manboobs. Do not request targeted votes. We read, we consider, we vote on merit. Download and use this handy scoring spreadsheet for some merit-mathin’.
- When alerted by suspicious and weird visitor patterns, we will validate each vote like a crazy person, redistributing those pesky self-votes and “vote for me, me, me” votes evenly among the poor at various food banks.
- Click on the thumbnail to read the post, click the yellow star to vote for that post.
- The page is gonna refresh after each yellow star click, so you’ll have to work your way back down to the grid to do it again.
- Sometimes, it will seem as though the Inlinkz app isn’t registering your votes. Refresh the page manually, and you should see the yellow stars have disappeared. You may have to change browsers. Keep calm and carry on.
- After you’ve voted three times, all the yellow stars will disappear and the current vote tallies will show under each thumbnail.
- Voting will close on Thursday at 9 pm US eastern. The winners’ post, including the jury prize winner and the crowd favorite, will publish three hours after that.
- Be good, y’all.
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What a great post! It really expresses so much of how a lot of us feel, I think. I have been pretty middle of the pack in voting, but one thing I’ll say is, when I see 5 votes by my name, I think, “hey, that’s 5 people who thought my post was one of the best this week!” Sure, I’d like to be one of the top posts, but as long as I am not, I read those winning posts again after the voting is said and done, so I can see what they do that is successful. Even if they are posts that I didn’t personally vote for, re-reading them is helpful for me, maybe especially so, because I already know why I like the ones I voted for.
Jane, thanks for rocking the posts this week!
Everyone’s saying it and it’s so true – the week to week part – yes! I will say that I really believe that most weeks my Yeah Write post is my best stuff, but often it’s not my best EVER. And it is downright impossible to improve every week without ever taking a step back or levelling out or whatever. None of this is a bad thing at all, but when it’s in my head that I have to do better each week, it holds me back from taking chances or simply saying that which I want to say for fear I won’t say it as well as I said that other thing that other time.
Becoming a better reader, finding the “it” in other people’s posts, all of that helps us become better writers. And on the weeks I don’t do as well, I try to look at who did better but also what was in my post that was different from a week I did better. What did I change that maybe didn’t work, what was my tone, etc.
Great post, great recommendations on voting and reading.
“I got a chance to experience unexpected acclaim, as well as how it felt to only get two votes for a piece incredibly close to my heart. I learned crucial lessons from both”.
This is too damn true. Sometimes I feel like a superhero with my writing, and sometimes I think…Am I even good at this?! Shouldn’t someone just say, try a different vocation Carrie, you kinda suck. I even asked Pish from the Pish Posh to Simon Cowell me.
Never before have I felt such doubt with my writing, but it has challenged me to better myself and while I very rarely do well, I can say without a doubt my writing has improved.
I used to think I did all this for the possibility of that badge, now I realize I subject myself to this because I have noticed a huge difference in my writing. It’s more polished, focused, and just better.
You’ve done an awesome job this week Jane and really talked about the heart of Yeah Write and the reason we all come back. It’s the community, but it’s also trying to outdo our personal best!
“We don’t even equal ourselves from week to week.” AMEN.
Hey! I just copied it to use it as part of my comment! See, here’s proof: “We don’t even equal ourselves from week to week.”
Honestly, that’s the only thing that got me to put a post up on the challenge grid (other than the fact that this is one of the few weeks Erica would allow me to be here!). Sometimes the “best” we bring this week isn’t quite what we brought last week, or the week before.
All we can ask, and all we can do is that we bring our best each week. Whatever it may be!
Jane Doe: Fantastic post. Really wonderful sentiment and encouragement.
I was glad to see your post! I was a little concerned to see so many say something to the effect of “I wrote something, but it’s not good enough,” or “I don’t have the time/energy to do yeah write justice.” I know the point is to bring our best, but there’s a point where perfectionism goes too far. I say this as someone who told herself she would write a post to link up (I had my other posts done in plenty of time, I could have done it) and then decided I was too burnt to do it. Next week…
“how it felt to only get two votes for a piece incredibly close to my heart” – speaks to me clearly. You nailed it. The more I read ALL the entries the easier it gets to narrow down that “it” factor. The ones that go and whack me upside the face and I just KNOW it’ll get my vote. But yes, the challenge is the WHY. The why keeps me coming back for more, even when I only get a few votes. Thank you for voicing so clearly, and thanks for rocking it out this week!
Oh, and YES to the spreadsheet! Go, Reedster! You rock!!!
Welcome y’all!
I was really happy to get the chance to share that feeling. I voted because I felt like I should. It really surprised me to learn how much it told me about myself.
“We don’t even equal ourselves from week to week.” That is so brilliant! And can apply to so many things. I make a fabulous dinner (meaning everyone in the family eats it without complaint) and then I make an awful one. And I’m more crushed by the awful one than I was uplifted by the fabulous one. I’m gonna paste your words to my brain and my fridge. Great job as guest hostess this week!
I think that’s a huge challenge to all of us – trying to give our triumphs as much weight as our failures. It’s taken me years to learn I don’t do myself any favors when I dismiss the good things I do. I just rob myself of the fuel I need to keep going.
Of course, others always see it so differently – when I think of your writing, I think of the times you hit it out of the park, not the times when you imagined it was “eh.”
Thanks for the compliment. I’m glad the post clicked for you!